The Quicksilver Initiative
by Webdog177
Summary: Specialist Weiss Schnee had seen many things go from bad to worse during her stint in the Atlesian military. From a minor flub of a rehearsed line while undercover, to compromising an entire team of fellow soldiers - pretty much every goof-up under the sun. She desperately hoped that this was not one of those times.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its' characters. I just like to play around with them a bit.

Partially adapted with permission from a good friend.

A/N: And here we are with another dive into RWBY fanfiction. I promised myself that if I started another multi chapter story, I would write the entire thing first, or at least one arc of said story before posting it. That being said, the current arc is finished (a short novella with 4 chapters) and wraps itself up pretty well, considering. If enough readers are interested, I will be continuing this through the next arc to the finale. Until then, I think this works pretty well as its' own story with enough action, adventure, villainous baddies and a dabble of romance to keep people entertained through its relatively short duration.

This will be a slight AU from the RWBY-verse in that, among other things, Weiss never went to Beacon Academy. She instead went down a different path, following her sister Winter to the Atlesian military. Not everything is canon -obviously- and any and all questions will be addressed further down the road.

Enjoy.

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 **The Quicksilver Initiative**

 _Arc 1, Episode 1: An Explosive Rendezvous_

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 **Weiss**

Weiss Schnee had seen many things go from bad to worse during her stint in the Atlesian military. From a minor flub of a rehearsed line while undercover, to compromising an entire team of fellow soldiers - pretty much every goof-up under the sun - she knew quite well that it didn't take all that much to have months of careful and meticulous planning go up in smoke.

Glancing at her wristwatch - thin and missable if one wasn't paying attention - she desperately hoped that this was not one of those times. Things were going well so far, but she was starting to wonder where her fire support had gone off to.

At the moment she was standing in the middle of one of the largest museums in Vale, rubbing shoulders with people from all over Remnant and watching out for a rather slippery terrorist that the her superiors had sent her team all the way to Vale to apprehend. Really, such an issue wasn't very outlandish for the specialists of Black Ops to tackle.

Consisting of a small assortment of soldiers with various skillsets, the Atlesian Special Operations and Tactics Squad - known around through word of mouth as the more ominous-sounding Spec Ops team - was sent to do all the tasks that the other branches weren't able to do. Reconnaissance, search and rescue, industrial sabotage, target identification and suppression and in some cases even assassination, though Weiss herself had yet to be given that particularly unsavory duty, Spec Ops handled it all. And even though Weiss only had a couple of years under her belt, as opposed to some of the older members of her squad - more so her very own sister - she was ambitious, and had the skills to back up her ambition.

And so far, she had not seen anyone that looked overly suspicious, but that was certainly no reason to drop her guard, Weiss decided, nor was it a particularly good reason for her support to be late.

" _Tundra Six, anything yet?"_ a tinny voice crackled in Weiss' ear.

"Nothing confirmed," she replied, moving her lips as little as possible to avoid any undue attention. "So far the closest people to the statue indicated in the report are an old man with a cane, a pair of young women on a bench, and a little boy. Maybe six or seven years. Can you confirm?

The other member of her team, Sergeant Lucca Keade - Tundra Three, snorted through their communicator. " _Nope. I'm on the other side of the cafeteria,"_ she muttered. " _I'm having issues with my equipment- the calibrations all fucked up! All I can do is tell people are around there, but I can't confirm anyone in particular."_

"Understood," Weiss murmured from her seat on a nearby bench. "I'm moving in for a closer look. It's almost time."

Lucca sounded almost amused as her voice filtered into her earpiece, " _What, you think it's the geezer with a cane? Or the little boy?"_

Weiss frowned, but chose not to reply. In her experience, no one could not be ruled out as a suspect unless she knew them personally - and even then, there could be exceptions. The whole debacle with the theft of all that dust from her family's company a few months ago was a prime example. She was not ready to say that there was no one that would turn their back on her, but that list had dropped significantly since facing a slew of traitors from her own military stealing from her own family.

As she began to casually stroll towards the statue on the other side of the room, Lucca spoke again. " _There are other groups watching this one, Weiss,"_ she reminded her, her voice losing it's flippant quality. " _Don't jump the gun this time."_

Since Weiss was not a student or a trainee, she was a professional, she simply replied with a succinct, "Yes, Ma'am," rather than scoff or take offense.

It was not, after all, as if she had never jumped to the wrong conclusion, or stormed off on her own to take care of things, or taken down someone she had _assumed_ was a terrorist on the street. That had been embarrassing, and Weiss was determined not to make that mistake again.

No, Weiss decided, her teammate's warning was not uncalled for in the slightest.

"The little boy is moving away," she reported, coming to a stop in front of a large piece of artwork and pretending to examine it. "I don't think he got close enough to drop anything by the statute. The old man," she paused, taking another quick look before turning away and pretending to watch a group of tourists moving from a bust of a famous artist to a wall with an assortment of paintings. "The old man appears to be blind."

" _And the girls?_ " Tundra Three prompted, the innocence all-too fake in her tone.

Weiss stepped away from the artwork and continued to make her way towards the statue. "Eating lunch together," she replied, lowering her voice to a whisper as she stilled, breathing, "They've spotted me."

For a moment, Weiss' eyes met those of the shorter of the two girls, her shoulder-length dark hair shining with highlights of red, and her hand twitched slightly, longing for the comfort of Myrtenaster… or at least her sidearm. This girl was _trained_ , she realized immediately, forcing herself not to look away from the girl's steel-like gaze too quickly. _A soldier, or at the very least, trained to fight - definitely not a casual day out with a friend_.

The term 'Huntress' never even crossed her mind.

"Hey there," the girl called from her seat by the statue, her tone friendly and conversational. The blonde-haired girl she was sitting next to looked up from her sandwich, lavender eyes sharpening almost unnoticeably. "Enjoying the museum?"

"Yes," Weiss answered, "It's very… lovely."

" _You're blown,"_ Lucca's voice hissed in her ear. " _She's a Huntress - I can fucking hear it from here!"_

Having no way to reply her, Weiss ignored the commentary. "Are you two from around here?" she asked, her heart pounding in her ears. "I haven't met many people from here willing to talk to foreigners. At least, not since I got here a couple days ago. Maybe you two could show me around...?"

The girl blinked, looking Weiss up and down, arching a dark eyebrow at her outfit. As it was, Weiss was fairly confident in her ability to dress 'civilian'; a red-blouse with white jacket - large enough to conceal her sidearm but still look fashionable - and white capris. Her canvas shoes were sensible and study - good for walking as well as running - and perfect for playing the 'eager tourist' if she needed to.

"Are you traveling alone?" the girl wondered casually. "Or with a tour group, or something? I mean, I'd be more than happy to show you some sights -" she grunted when the blonde girl jabbed her in the ribs with an elbow. "I mean, _we'd_ be more than happy to show you the sights…. But I wouldn't want anyone you're with to worry…"

"I'm on my own today," Weiss replied with a shake of her head, "So it's not a problem."

Weiss was so focused on the speaker that she almost missed the fact that the taller of the two was staring at the two of them with an almost impatient frown. Weiss glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, surprised to see that both of the girls looked to be about as old as she herself was. At a guess, she placed both of them at twenty-three or twenty-four years old, though their eyes painted them as much older, reflecting none of the cheeriness that a typical girl in her early twenties would have.

Much like Weiss herself was, now that she thought about it.

Somewhere deep down, Weiss knew that things were definitely not what they seemed.

"Well then, maybe we should start with -"

"Ruby!"

 _The old man,_ Weiss suddenly thought, feeling strangely detached as the blonde girl threw herself off of the bench and tackled the shorter girl to the ground. _Shit!_ _I shouldn't have forgotten about the old man!_

She tensed, instinctively raising her arm to shield her face as a dull ' _whump'_ sounded right in front of her - and then she was flying, spinning through the air by the force of the blast she had failed to stop. Hot wind tore across at her body and chunks of debris rained down, small pieces peppering her with searing pricks of pain while the pleasant but crowded din of a day at the museum suddenly morphed to the screams of a frightened mob of people.

"S-status," she wheezed once she rolled to her hands and knees, fumbling around for her earpiece and shaking her head to clear the ringing in her ears. "Tundra Three? Tundra Four? Lucca? Chet?"

Her fingers found nothing but naked flesh as she fished around for her communications device - flesh and a hot, wet gash just above her ear. She cursed and reached for her hand-held communicator, blinking dust and debris from her eyes, and was able to get partway to her feet when something dark and hard hit her, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her back down to the ground.

" _You_ ," a chillingly calm voice hissed from above her, "You did this!"

Looking up, Weiss met the gaze of the very same dark haired girl she had been talking to moment's before, paired with the gunmetal grey of an automatic pistol inches from her nose. The barrel trembled slightly as the young woman glared down at her, unmitigated fury in her silvery eyes.

Her cheerful smile was nowhere to be seen.

Swallowing against a suddenly very dry throat, Weiss chose her words carefully. "I'm afraid you misunderstood, I was only -"

Suddenly, the young woman tensed, and before Weiss could blink she seemed to flicker where she stood, reappearing a few inches to the left - her pistol still trained on her nose - and barely avoided the bullet that whistled through the space she had just been a moment before.

 _Fuck! Tundra Four - Chet!_ Weiss tried to roll to her feet, but the girl was on her again in a flash, stepping around her back and snaking an arm around neck, squeezing her forearm against her throat.

"Call off your sniper," the girl demanded, putting more pressure on Weiss' neck, using her as a shield against further shots as she trained her glare towards the gaping hole in the side of the museum Weiss was sure her teammate had taken his shot in from.

"I, I can't," she muttered shortly, wincing as the girl's grip on her throat tightened.

"Do it!"

"I can't - you're standing on my earpiece."

The girl looked down, and that was when Weiss made her move. Or attempted to, anyway. With the girl distracted she pushed back, intending to slam the back of her head against the girl's face - and immediately fell back on the ground, the wind knocked out of her as she hit the floor.

The light was blocked by the girl's dark silhouette. "Nice try… but _don't_ try shit like that aga-"

As she was speaking, another shot rang out, and Weiss both felt and heard the slug slam into the woman's leg. She didn't seem to flicker out of existence that time, but neither did she fall to the ground.

"S-shit!" she cursed, pulling up Weiss with her left arm and gripping her neck with the other. "You bitch… you killed Yang!"

Weiss struggled, trying to pull the girl's arm away from her throat, but it was no good. Her grip was far stronger than her own. Weiss was a trained soldier - but this girl clearly had the capabilities of a Huntress. She just wished she realized that a few seconds earlier than she had.

She felt her muscles in her neck constrict as the girl picked her up and squeezed her throat. Her heart pounded in her chest, as if hoping to keep her alive by sheer will. For a moment, Weiss considered throwing away her dignity and begging for her life, her duty and family flitting through her mind as she wished she could go back and say goodbye to her loved ones… but she knew it would ultimately be a waste.

"Ruby, let her go."

In an instant, the hand on her throat was gone and Weiss fell forward to her knees, gasping and choking for breath as her lungs burned and her limbs tingled.

"Yang!" the girl - Ruby - cried, leaping from Weiss' kneeling form to her friend's, reaching around her neck to pull her upright against the broken wall. "You're alive!"

"The target," the blonde girl - Yang - muttered, wincing as she weakly lifted a hand and pressed it against her side. "Pursue the target, Ruby. Take this girl and go."

Ruby blinked. "What? B-but-"

"We have a mission, Ruby." Yang interrupted. "This girl," she nodded slowly towards Weiss, who had just managed to catch her breath and look up at her mention. "She's on our side. If she was with the mark, then she wouldn't have been caught in the blast with us. You should know that."

Ruby glanced regretfully towards Weiss, looking suddenly like a little girl called out for not doing her homework. Oddly enough, it was a lot like Weiss being scolded by her own older sister for doing something wrong.

"But you're hurt," Ruby argued. "I should stay and-"

"You have to go and catch the target," Yang persisted. "If we lose them, we might never get another chance at this." She turned her attention to Weiss - her lavender eyes suddenly looking less like the girl she seemed and more like someone much older - someone much more experienced. "Our backup will be here soon," she said. "But there's no time to lose, right?' After Weiss nodded, she swallowed, wincing. "I don't really know who you're with, but I honestly don't give a shit. Take Ruby and go hunt those fuckers down."

"Understood."

Yang was right, of course. There was no time to lose. If they waited for their so-called backup - or her own, for that matter - their terrorist would be long gone and they would miss their chance at them for who known how long.

They needed to move out.

"We'll take the side streets - keep out of sight," Weiss declared, reaching into her jacket and palming her sidearm as she looked around, trying to peer through the smoke and debris. "I hear sirens coming. We probably have a minute or two until…"

She trailed off as Ruby slid up to her side, winding her arm through hers. Weiss looked over to her, but the girl's eyes were locked onto Yang's as she said, "I'll be back soon."

Yang nodded, her smile tight. "I know, Rubes. Go!"

Ruby gave Yang one last pained look, her hesitation clearly willing her to stay, before she finally turned her head and ran, tugging Weiss along with her, towards the museum's exit.

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The Quicksilver Initiative

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 **Ruby**

The cobbled ground made hard echoing cracks underneath Ruby's shoes as she and the silver-haired woman she found herself with dashed from the museum through the side streets of Vale's industrial district. Whoever she was, she must have been in good shape to be able to keep up with Ruby, even with a fifty caliber slug stuck in her calf.

Though, that was probably because Ruby still had a tight hold on her forearm as she ran.

"Where are we going?" the woman asked as they made a sharp turn down another alleyway.

"Yang spotted the guy with a cane down by the rail yard earlier today when we combed the area," Ruby explained, stopping for a moment at an intersection between building to get her bearings. "We thought he was blind at first, but we still had him marked since his description matched one of the terrorist's known accomplices. And when he showed up again at the museum today…"

"I was thinking the same thing," the woman admitted, following at Ruby's heel as she sprinted off towards the direction of the rail yard. "The old man, the little boy, and you and your girlfriend."

Ruby bit off her correction of, _she's my sister_ , simply because it wasn't important. It wasn't like that particular knowledge would help them catch the mark, after all.

Still, she had to know, "How'd you know she's my girlfriend?"

The young woman looked up, and seeing that they were closing in on the station from a break in the buildings around then, she began to explain as they ran. "Simple," she said, "You seemed far too comfortable with her than a simple coworker or a fellow soldier, and she didn't look old enough to be a mentor or some kind. And finally, you two didn't look enough alike to be related."

Ruby nodded silently, digesting that.

"Therefore, I would assume that the two of you were dating, so - hey!"

The two came to a halt as Ruby nearly ran headlong into a pedestrian.

"Geez… watch it!" Ruby snarled as they dashed down yet another alleyway. When they stopped at a crumbling intersection between buildings, she looked back to see her companion eyeing her leg warily.

"You're hurt," the young woman muttered, stepping forward and making to kneel down. "Here, let me see-"

"There's no time," Ruby cut her off. "He'll get away. Yang said I can't let them get away."

Surveying the scene for a moment, she set her course and resumed her dash, her jaw set in determination as the railyard came into full view before them.

"There! There he is!"

The woman at her side peered to where Ruby pointed, a small figure with bright orange hair boarding a cargo train. "How can you tell?" she wondered aloud.

"I'm a sharpshooter," Ruby murmured, keeping her eyes trained on the man as she raced down the narrow pathways. "He has the same gait, same profile… that red hair is also a dead giveaway. We memorized the key features of everyone close enough to bomb the statue."

The girl mumbled something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like, 'show-offs', but Ruby chose to ignore her. _We have to stop him before the train leaves,_ she thought. _Secure the mark, return to Yang. Secure the mark, return to HQ. Secure the mark, return to Yang. Help Yang._

"They're leaving," the woman noted. "We should jump on - they have guards posted at the loading docks, but not the far side."

Ruby nodded. Of course they had no one watching the far side, after all no one in their right mind would think about jumping on the back of a train as it left the station. That kind of thing only happened in movies… or Blake's badly written 'romance' novels.

But with a Huntress - or someone who could keep up with one, apparently - it could actually work.

Ruby spared the woman beside her a quick glance, just fast enough to nod her acceptance of the plan and to wonder just what organization or group she belonged to, and what she was even doing there in the first place, before dashing off towards the end of the train just as the whistle started blowing.

 _There's no time,_ she thought, and releasing her grip on the woman's arm she sprinted through the pain in her leg towards the last car. _No time._ The girl beside her leaped without stopping onto the car, vaulting over the railing like it was nothing. Ruby crouched low to leap, but then a spear of pain lanced through her leg - the bullet wound still fresh and throbbing - and caused her to stumble at the last second.

 _Damnit!_

 _Don't think, just do. Don't think, just do._

Again she tried to jump, but again her leg failed her and she limped, unable to complete the jump or keep up with the train. Her Semblance would have made such a feat like catching the train child's play… but with the slug in her calf she couldn't gain the speed she normally would be able to match.

She was no faster than a regular Huntress.

"Just go without me!" She called, slowing to a jog as the train picked up speed. "Catch the mark!"

The woman didn't reply; she held out a hand towards Ruby and suddenly - unexpectedly - the ground beneath her feet shifted. Ruby looked down and blinked when she saw the dirt and gravel beneath her shoes shimmer and shine with a bright white symbol.

 _A glyph,_ Ruby realized with sudden clarity. She blinked and looked back up towards the train, and was barely able to make out the woman's words as she yelled them.

" _Go now! Jump!"_

And Ruby leapt.

The glyph under her feet seemed to lurch beneath her, acting as a springboard, and Ruby sailed through the air with ease, her short hair whipping around her ears and the wind hitting her face. She yelped as she reached the end of the train, and grabbed hold of the woman's outstretched arm.

"Hold on," she hissed urgently as Ruby pulled herself up on the railing. "I got you."

Though stunned from the sudden change in events, Ruby shook off the effects from the glyph and leapt fully onto the back of the train.

"In here!"

Quickly, the two ducked into the back door of the train, and slipped into a small alcove just beside the entrance to the car, sliding a door shut just moments before a pair of guards - faunus, from the look of them - walked by to check out the back of the train.

The woman grunted as Ruby slid along the wall of the train, partly in discomfort but mostly in surprise as they maneuvered themselves inside the narrow alcove, trying to find a comfortable spot to wait out the guards. As it was, Ruby had the other girl pinned against the wall, her somewhat larger stature against the other's more lithe, petite form, and even in the semi-darkness of the alcove, Ruby could study her face as she returned her own gaze with an equally stern expression, trying not to squirm under each other's sudden and intense scrutiny.

Ruby could almost hear the gears turning in the woman's head, forming questions like, ' _Who is this girl? How did she end up here with me? What kind of girl calls herself a sharpshooter?"_

She had similar questions, but knew there would be time for answers later; preferably after they were safer.

Apparently thinking along similar lines, the young woman simply glanced at Ruby, pursing her lips for a moment before whispering, "Don't make a sound."

Ruby's eyes widened as woman slid down the wall to her knees. She silently lifted the hem of her skirt with one hand, surveying the damage done to her leg. She gently poked her finger into her bullet wound made by the sniper in the museum. "It feels like it's in there pretty deep," she murmured, keeping her voice low as she reached down to tear at the hem of her own blouse. She tore off a small strip of the material and proceeded to wrap it around Ruby's leg. "I don't think I can pull it out without some tools. Can you still move well enough?"

Ruby's eyes widened at the girl's calm demeanor, and she nodded, whispering, "Yes. I can still move. Just… not as quick as usual."

"I see," she replied. "Well, as long as you can still run and fight, I think we'll be okay. I'll see if I can pull out the bullet once we find some supplies."

It took several seconds for her words to sink into Ruby's brain, but once they did, she reacted in a way she hadn't for a very long time.

She pouted.

"I'm not a kid, you know," she muttered, her voice rising slightly in indignation. "I'm a Huntress. My name is Ruby."

The young woman glanced briefly at the wound in her leg - probably double checking her makeshift bandage - and then looked back up. "Sorry… Ruby. I didn't mean to offend you." She lowered Ruby's skirt and pushed herself back up the wall, holding out her hand in offering.

"Specialist Weiss Schnee. Atlesian Special Operations and Tactics."

Standing almost nose-to-nose with this woman in a dark alcove in the back of a train headed to Gods knows where, Ruby wondered if this was really the time or the place for proper protocol. She knew, however, that Yang and Blake would be upset with her if they found out that she had been rude to someone she had just met when they were being polite, and carefully took the offered hand with her right.

"Ruby Rose. Huntress. Its nice to meet you," she whispered, blushing faintly as it occurred to her how close the two of the actually were, and the fact that the woman that she just became acquainted with had seen up her skirt.

Well, this mission was off to a great start.

If Weiss shared in her discomfort, though, she didn't show it. "It looks like the train is underway," she murmured, closing her eyes and listening to the rhythm of the rails and the hydraulics under them. "We should wait until it gets dark, and then try to find another place to hide. Provisions could be an issue if this trip is long, but I think we could find something. We'll need to move around at night, and take only what we need to get by without anyone noticing… what? What is it?"

Ruby was starting at Weiss with an expression of awe on her face. She blushed lightly, shaking her head. "N-nothing."

 _She talks like Blake, or like Professor Goodwitch,_ she thought as Weiss began to mutter potential dangers and issues under her breath. _Oh, Gods… they probably reached Yang by now… I hope she's alright!_

"... and if we can get signal on our scrolls or something," Weiss continued, "then we could probably send out a call to my team, or yours, and then -"

"Weiss?"

"Mmm?"

"I think we should probably be a little more quiet."

Weiss blinked, and then reluctantly agreed that Ruby was probably right. As they stood there in silence, rocking slowly by the motion of the car, Ruby tried to decide what to do. She was a good Huntress - great, even - but she was more of a follower than a leader. She had joined Beacon two years earlier than most people, her skill being a very good bonus to her rapid growth through the ranks, but she never really got the hang of being a team leader. Not like Yang had.

She grimaced to herself. She was in way over her head, and now that she had the time to think, the young Huntress began to realize just how unprepared she was for a mission like this.

Cut off from her partner, wounded, nothing on her except her scroll and a sidearm - she had to leave her Crescent Rose behind to avoid detection - and a single clip of ammunition, Ruby suddenly wanted to cry. _Yang would be ashamed if she saw me like this,_ she thought sadly. _What should I do? What can I do?_

"Ruby."

"What?"

Ruby watched as Weiss shrugged off her jacket, a feat made more difficult from their close proximity, "The car isn't heated," she said softly. "We should rest for about an hour or two, and then find someplace better to hide." Ruby hesitated as Weiss draped her jacket over her shoulders, and then slipped beside her to cover the both of them.

"Um, no thanks. I'm… not that cold."

"It's not even sunset," Weiss said simply, eyeing Ruby as a shiver ran through her frame uninvited. "I can deal with the cold better than most people, but it will get much colder than this. Please."

Being a Huntress, Ruby was more resistant to damage and pain… but in a skirt and a thin blouse, she was still susceptible to chill, and now that the adrenaline from the chase was over, she _was_ starting to get a little cold. She glanced over at the woman beside her, studying her face closely for any sign of malice or duplicity. Ruby wasn't necessarily _afraid_ of her, but she also knew if Weiss decided to attack her in a moment of weakness, then she wouldn't be able to protect herself.

And she wasn't ready to die just yet.

As Weiss started to lower her jacket over the both of them, Ruby carefully slid closer, thinking that it would do nobody any good if she were to get sick from the wound in her leg _and_ the cold of the unheated, unpowered train car. _Besides_ , she thought as the warm jacket covered her shoulders, _Yang told me to work with her._

In spite of that thought, Ruby didn't close her eyes. Neither did Weiss. So instead of resting, the two knelt there in the alcove, side by side with their heads touching to share body heat as the movement of the train rocked their bodies from side to side.

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 **To be continued.**

A/N: Thanks for reading - see you all on the next update in a few days.

 _***Will work for glomps***_


	2. Chapter 2

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 **The Quicksilver Initiative**

 _Episode 2: Murder on the Vale Express_

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 **Lucca**

"You saw her alive after the blast? You're _sure_ you saw her alive?"

Lucca Kaede - Tundra Three to her teammates - visually fought the urge to rub at her eyes as her commander, Winter Schnee, grilled her teammate, Chet Millan, for more information. Lucca had already been debriefed after the incident, of course, but she couldn't really blame the usually stern, taciturn woman for going above and beyond for their missing squad member.

Being the big sister of the missing member of their team tended to bring that out in people.

"Yes, Ma'am," Chet replied crisply, "When I saw her, she was between me and the girl marked as 'Target Two' in the report."

"And then you lost her in the crowd," the silver haired woman muttered, pacing back and forth in front of him, her hands laced behind her back and a dark glare across her face. "Spec Ops' best sharpshooter, and you couldn't pick her out of a crowd of less that a few dozen people in an enclosed area. And not only that - but you lost the target _and_ her accomplice as well! All three," she clicked her thumb and forefinger together, "Poof! Gone - into thin air."

"Commander," Lucca cut in sternly. "That's going too far. There was debris, and dust obscuring his -"

"And you are speaking out of turn, Gunnery Sergeant!" Winter snapped. "I've read your report and debriefed you, and now I am speaking to Sergeant Millan. I will return to you in a moment."

As the commander turned on her heel, muttering to herself, Chet and Lucca exchanged a wary glance. It was no secret that Winter and Weiss were close, even for sisters. After all, Weiss had followed Winter through her entire career, even after the whole incident with Atlas Academy. Likewise, Winter treated Weiss like a sister as well as a soldier, but this was the first time they could recall seeing Winter let her personal feelings affect her judgement during a military matter.

"The girl…"

Chet and Lucca turned their attention back to their commander. "Ma'am?" Chet paused, prompting when Winter remained silent. "What about the girl, Commander?"

"You said you shot at her twice? You missed the first time, and hit her in the leg the second time?"

Hesitating for a moment, Chet nodded slowly. "I… don't believe I should have missed. I had a clear shot the first time. I fired, and should have hit her in the shoulder… but then she - she was just sort of not there anymore. She just… appeared a few inches away, and my shot went wide. I should have hit her, Commander, but she just… it's like she teleported."

"Or moved really fast…" Winter whispered, pacing around the room, her finger tapping at her bottom lip. "If what you said was true, and she _was_ a Huntress... it could be them," she added, seeming unaware that Chet and Lucca were still in the room. "It _is_ their territory, after all… but why would they be after a terrorist?"

Wisely keeping silent despite their curiosity, the two soldiers waited patiently for their commander to finish her pacing and mumbling, her striking features growing more and more agitated until she finally cursed aloud, walking over to the desk at the front of the her makeshift office desk and picking up her scroll.

"General Ironwood," she said briskly into the device, not even bothering with formalities. "I need someone under your command to reach out to Beacon Academy and find out if any of their Hunters were active around central Vale during the bombing. Additionally…" she paused, flicking her eyes up to Chet and Lucca. "...this is just a hunch, but I need someone to bring me all the files we have on the Quicksilver Initiative within the hour. Everything."

Without waiting for a reply, she pressed another button on her scroll. "This is Commander Schnee. Please review all the information gathered from Vale from the morning to the afternoon. I want any and all routes Weiss - Specialist Schnee - could have possibly taken out of the city." she listened, her expression turning thunderous. "Yes, I am aware that your team is already doing that. Make it a priority! I have a feeling that if we find Weiss, we'll find our target!"

Slamming her scroll on the table, she turned back to the others, her expression slowly softening before her shoulders relaxed.

"My apologies," she suddenly murmured. "I know you did all you could - she's your teammate… it's not your fault."

Chet and Lucca looked at each other, relieved that the storm seemed to be over.

"Well, don't worry, Ma'am," Chet said, his posture straightening. "We'll track Weiss down. She's your sister, but she's also part of the team. And when we do find her, we'll -"

"No," Winter interrupted, her face torn between resignation and determination. "We have a job to do. Weiss is a smart girl, I know she'll be fine. She will contact us the moment she can. In the meantime, we need to do _our_ job and track this bastard down."

 _Because, really, that's all we can do,_ Lucca thought as she watched the myriad of emotions flicker across Winter's face. Her love for her little sister, her duty as a soldier, even her urge as a Huntress to go out and find their missing teammate herself. _We protect the people who can't protect themselves. Even if it means we end up possibly losing one of our own in the process._

"Don't worry, Winter," Lucca said as Chet saluted and left the room. She stepped close to her leader and placing a hand on her shoulder. They didn't have quite the relationship that would allow for a hug, or anything like that - and God knew Winter wasn't the type that needed mothering or comfort - but she could do everything she could for her commander and friend. "Regardless of how young she is, or her status with the academy… she's both a Huntress and a soldier. She'll be okay."

Winter smiled tightly at her.

"I hope your right, Lucca. I hope your right."

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

0 - 0 - 0

 **Ruby**

Ruby woke with a start, the smell of metal and oil sharp in her nose as she blinked in the near pitch-blackness of night. She could not recall how exactly she had fallen asleep, but based on the quiet and darkness surrounding her, she guess it was sometime in the middle of the night, give or take a couple hours.

Her leg throbbed as she tensed her muscles, the natural painkiller of endorphin long since having worn off. The pain was dull and low - a good sign, since it would not hold her back too much - though she knew that if it was left on its own too long, then things could go from bad, to worse.

After all, the bullet was still inside her.

"...Weiss?" she said groggily, trying to pick the other woman's face out of the inky blackness of their alcove.

She could feel her body, so she knew she was there… and somehow, though she couldn't quite recall how, they had repositioned themselves during the night, ending up sitting on the floor of the alcove and their legs intertwined, propped up against the opposite wall.

The Huntress blushed, managing to locate Weiss' face, only to have her heart leap into her throat as she found the silver-haired girl gazing down at her.

"Did you rest?"

"Yes," Ruby couldn't help but reply truthfully, "I did. Did you?"

The woman shook her head. "No," she murmured, "I've been listening. They have a guard that patrols here about every fifteen to twenty minutes… this is no ordinary cargo train."

Ruby nodded, and the frowned, feeling a noticeable hollowness at the small of her back.

"Weiss?"

"Yes?"

"Where's my gun?"

Weiss didn't even hesitate to answer, "I have it. The safety was off." Ruby felt her heartbeat slow a little with the feeling of warm steel pressed into her hand - _Hey, it wasn't Crescent Rose, but it was something_ , and she looked up into Weiss' cool blue eyes, knowing instinctively that the idea of killing Ruby in her sleep never, not even once, occurred to this girl.

"I think it's a little late for us to distrust each other," Weiss said calmly, not blinking as she watched her. "Can we work together, Ruby?"

It was hard to say no when she put it like that, Ruby decided, when the person asking you essentially gave you back your gun - loaded, Ruby knew, from the weight - and had been sharing your body heat for the past few hours.

"Yea," Ruby said quietly. "We can, Weiss."

Ruby listened attentively as Weiss laid out their situation and options, sterilizing her wound with some alcohol she had scrounged up and rebinding it with fabric from her shirt as she spoke. The way Weiss saw things, she explained, they were outnumbered and did not know their destination. Their scrolls had no signal in the train, and most of the cars were powered. So they needed to lie low until the train either reached a stop, or the end of the line before making any large moves. Once they _did_ arrive, she reasoned that they could find out what exactly they had gotten involved in - as this was clearly more than a simple called bombing, as she had been briefed on - find a way to communicate with one or both of their teams, and then disrupt any and all operations this organization was trying to do until their teams arrived as backup.

As she finished speaking, Ruby cocked her head to the side and asked, "Isn't that… guerilla warfare?"

"Yes," Weiss replied. "It's what soldiers do when outnumbered and outmatched." She looked down at Ruby from her place against the wall. "Are you uncomfortable with that?"

Ruby considered the question for a moment, but ultimately shook her head. "I've never really done that before… but I think I'm okay with it." she admitted. "I'm a Huntress, so I mainly track and kill Grimm. And I don't know how much help I'll really be with my leg like this…" she brightened slightly as a thought occurred to her. "My friend Blake would be really good that this, I think."

"Some people are better suited to different kind of tactics than others." Weiss surmised. "Is Blake good as what she does?"

"Yea. She's on my team at Beacon."

"Ah," Weiss nodded thoughtfully. "You're from Beacon. That makes sense." Then her expression grew thoughtful. "But why were you tracking the terrorist? As you said, I would think you usually fight Grimm."

At that, Ruby frowned. "Usually you would be right. Lately we have been outsourced to the military for certain operations. We don't do anything like killing or stuff like that... but we're good at finding things. And for some reason, whoever it is that's moving the dust is also affecting the Grimm. We don't really fully understand the correlation between the dust and the presence of the Grimm; but wherever there's large amounts of Dust, the Grimm usually gather. And where the Grimm gather-"

"-bad stuff happens." Weiss finished the old Huntsman's adage.

Ruby blinked, surprised that the woman knew how the saying finished. "Are you… are you a Huntress, too?" She recalled, hours before, when she had been trying to catch the train and having her leg fail her at the last moment, a glyph appearing beneath her feet to assist in gaining the necessary momentum to make the jump. She had never seen one in person, but she had read about Huntsmen and Huntresses that specialized in glyphs. "That, um, that glyph was yours… right?"

Weiss' lips thinned on her face, and she seemed to sigh through her nose. "I'm not a Huntress," she said stiffly.

Ruby felt her eyebrows form a crooked line of confusion. "But… that glyph was yours? Was that… was that your Semblance?"

Weiss was silent for a long time before finally answering, "To answer your question… yes, that was my Semblance. I can form glyphs to manipulate matter, among certain things. But it's limited to affecting velocity of the objects they form under. I cannot do much else with it. My sister is better at it than I am." She looked away, staring into the darkness around them. "I am not a Huntress."

"Alright." Ruby said softly. "I understand. Though, it's good to know what you can do, at least."

Nodding silently, Weiss looked as though she was about to reply when further conversation was curtailed as footsteps approached. They waited until the footsteps passed, and then slipped out of the alcove, peering around carefully to make sure the coast was clear until making their way into the car proper. A quick survey inside showed that they were definitely on a freight train of some kind, which meant there were potentially dozens of places for a pair of smallish women to hide for an extended amount of time.

And considering that they had no way to know where they were going, it was good to have multiple hiding places.

 _Weiss said that as long as we cover our tracks, they'll never know were here,_ Ruby thought as she and Weiss slipped between a pair of dirty lift vans. _But who knows how long we could be here for…_

Closing her eyes, Ruby reached down and slipped her hand into Weiss', comforted by its warmth. She wasn't Yang, of course, but Weiss was confident and in charge.

And really, that was all that Ruby needed.

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

0 - 0 - 0

 **Weiss**

The time spent stowed away on the train was less of a journey, and more of an exercise in boredom, tension, and awkwardness. Weiss and the Huntress named Ruby moved from hiding place to hiding place on the train, avoiding patrolling faunus acting as guards with the ease of professionals outmaneuvering amateurs, which concerned Weiss somewhat, because the faunus that populated the trained seemed to be anything but amateurs.

 _The White Fang_ , both she and Ruby decided soon after establishing a routine of finding a new hiding place, staking out the patrolling guards for a couple hours, and making short excursions out for supplies. The faunus extremist group was a surprise to find on the train with that they knew to be a well-known human terrorist, but that just left the question of _why were they even here?_

Nights were spent in whatever secluded area they could find when darkness fell in the unpowered cars, and meals were whatever meager rations the two could steal from the guards or the supply car without being noticed. Fortunately, the train seemed well stocked, and they selected the items that were plentiful, making sure that no one would miss a few missing provisions. Weiss had found a blanket on one of her scouting trips, so they were spared the cold of the nights, but since the blanket was small and thin, they still spent every night huddled together for warmth.

Conversations weren't very stimulating. Anything the two had to say to each other tended to stick close to their situation, and their plans for escaping or back-up plans in case of discovery. Ruby seemed surprised at first with Weiss' lack of concern at being able to kill each and every person on the train, but shook off her surprise just as quickly. After all, it was more than likely they wouldn't be afforded the gift of mercy if they were caught. It was well known that the White Fang tended to treat those that got in their way as less than expendable.

It was three whole days before boundaries between the two began to soften.

"I want a bath."

Weiss looked up from where she had been going over yet another contingency plan, and cocked an eyebrow as she murmured, "A bath, huh…"

Ruby plucked listlessly at her skirt. "I feel dirty... my leg hurts," she whispered, "And I want cookies."

Stretching out her own legs, Weiss nodded, hesitating before mumbling, "Yes. When I was younger my sister would give me cookies she made herself."

"Were they good?" Ruby wanted to know, perking up a bit as she leaned closer to Weiss. "What kind did she make?"

Weiss blinked. "I… don't remember. It was so long ago. Chocolate… maybe?"

"Ohhhh I love chocolate cookies." Ruby gushed, her eyes sparkling. "Nothing is better than cookies and a glass of milk." She groaned, "Oh man. Now I made myself sad because I don't have any."

Weiss smiled softly. "Sorry, but you brought it up. We normally eat military rations at Atlas, anyway."

Ruby made a face. "Ugh, I hate those. They also give us healthy, balanced food at Beacon. We normally have to sneak in sweets."

Frowning, Weiss stared at her, trying to decide if Ruby was kidding. When it was clear she was not, she said, "Aren't sweets and cookies bad for you?"

"Well," Ruby shrugged a shoulder and winked at Weiss. "What the higher ups don't know, doesn't hurt them, right?"

Politely allowing the idea of Ruby's superiors at Beacon being hoodwinked by their Huntresses pass by unchallenged, Weiss said, "It sounds like Beacon is a nice place."

The girl's eyes softened, her expression turning wistful. "It is," she murmured. "Especially since Yang is there with me…" She blushed as she noticed the expression on Weiss' face, and quickly got to her feet, blurting out, "Well, we'd better get moving again, so-"

Suddenly, the train lurched, the screech of grinding metal reaching their ears as Ruby yelped, falling forward into Weiss' arms as shouts began sounding from the surrounding cars.

"It feels like we're stopping suddenly," Weiss observed, helping Ruby to regain balance before pushing herself upright. "Have we reached our destination?"

"W-Weiss…"

Glancing down, Weiss found Ruby looking up at her with a look of pain on her youthful features.

"I… I can't feel my leg."

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

0 - 0 - 0

 **Winter**

Winter rubbed at her eyes with her thumb and her forefinger, a mountain of files and paperwork piled on her desk. The fact that her direct superior, General Ironwood himself, was standing opposite her across the room seemed to matter little to her, as her irritation was obvious, and palpable.

"So, your hunch was right," the older man muttered, crossing his arms across his broad chest. His face was stark and stern, and his hair was cropped short, his age being the main reason of his silver coloration - unlike Winter, whose hair color was as natural as her sister's.

Glancing up at the man, Winter said, "So it would seem. Someone has reactivated the Quicksilver Initiative."

General Ironwood pursed his lips. "Are we sure? What is our proof?"

Winter gestured vaguely to the files littering her desk. "The evidence speaks for itself. First the repeated attacked on the SDC dust stocks and freighters, and then the missing records - taken straight from our depository - as well as the pattern of the terrorist's targets. It all adds up."

"Indeed it does," Ironwood murmured. "Is there any chance there is a mistake? Some sort of coincidence?"

Winter shook her head. "No, no one besides a few people in Remnant know exactly what the Quicksilver Initiative is, and even fewer have the means to pursue it." She leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling as she said, "We need to be sure to have the entire team ready to deploy at any time. I know that Specialist Schnee is pursuing the fugitive. When she makes contact, we need to be ready to move out."

Though the possible ' _if she contacts'_ remained unsaid, Ironwood cleared his throat, "Has there been any update about the trains that left the rail yard that day?

Shifting the papers around on her desk, Winter held up a single sheet of paper. "Every single one, plus the ones that left from the south station, have been accounted for." she said. "Except for one. Can you take a guess as to the name of it, General?"

Ironwood shook his head, and leaned forward to read the paper. " _Mercury,_ " he muttered softly, "and we didn't even notice it…"

"We didn't even know to look for it." Winter replied. "The Quicksilver Initiative was shut down - and everything except for these files destroyed. Or… it was supposed to be, anyway."

They stared at the manifest, pondering on the meaning in the name. Mercury - also known as Quicksilver, or the element that it derived from, could have any number of meanings. But when taking into account the Quicksilver Initiative, and what it's purpose was for, it took on a whole different interpretation.

"So we wait." Ironwood stated, drawing the commander out of her thoughts.

Winter slumped, the skin around her eyes tightening. "That's all we can do," she muttered. "No one has seen the _Mercury_ since it left the station, nor has it stopped at any checkpoints. There should be a finite amount of areas it would be heading based on the rail line… but for all we know, it stopped somewhere in between. It's like it just… disappeared. Until Specialist Schnee contacts us, all we can do is try and stay ready."

Reluctantly, Ironwood admitted that she was right. Gathering the files on her desk into a neat pile, he shuffled through them, eyes lingering on two that were clearly marked, 'dust chamber', and 'test subject results' and feeling a slight stirring of dread build in his gut, General Ironwood realized that for the first time in months, the Atlesian Special Operations and Tacticts Squad had almost no other leads.

"Has there been any word from Beacon?"

Ironwood shook his head. "All they would say is that they are aware of the bombing, and nothing more. They are being unsurprisingly tight-lipped."

"The bombing at the museum…" Winter then murmured, suddenly straightening in her chair. "Quick! Get me a list of the artwork that was damaged in the explosion. I know who caused the bombing!" Grabbing her jacket off the back of her chair, she started for the door, muttering, "I'm so fucking stupid... why didn't I notice it before?"

Blinking, but thankful that Winter had picked up on something he clearly had missed, the General followed along, listening as she outlined her theory to him on how and why the bombing happened, its perpetrator and its connection to Quicksilver. As they reached Operations and began planning for her proposed destination, he had to admit that with the added benefit of hindsight… they should have seen this coming a long time ago.

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

0 - 0 - 0

 **Ruby**

The train was quiet - or rather, it was deathly silent, a fact that made Weiss visibly edgy and more than a little cautious. Ruby stole a sidelong glance at her as they crept, hand in hand, from car to car. Once they had found that Ruby had lost the feeling in her leg, there had been a quick discussion of what to do next, and in the end agreed that it would be worth the risk to sneak out to look around, just to see what was going on.

The fact that Weiss had to help Ruby along as she limped on a numb leg didn't help matters, but there was little they could do about that at this point.

Ruby was glad of the help Weiss had offered, only because she had been on the verge of asking herself. _It wasn't only because I'm hurt and out of my depth,_ she told herself as she sent a sickly smile in Weiss direction when she looked back, _but I also don't want to get separated._

She could not remember the last time she had been away from Yang for this long, or even if she _had_ been away from her this long since she arrived at Beacon. Granted, she _was_ a proven Huntress with more Grimm kills under her belt than most, but in most of her previous experiences Yang had been there to help her when she got stuck.

And besides, she _was_ only twenty-one years old.

"Do you smell that?" Weiss murmured, pausing as they slipped into a car just past a supply room. "It smells like blood to me."

Ruby nodded, feeling the slightest stirring of disappointment that not only she knew what blood smelled like, but Weiss did as well. "It's coming from further up," she whispered, nodding her head towards the car ahead of them. "There's a lot of it, Weiss. A lot of blood."

Weiss nodded. "I know," she said. "And the door is already open. Which means that something is wrong. When we go through, you cover the right and I'll take the left. I don't like this at all."

"Got it."

It felt natural for Ruby to let Weiss take charge. In fact, Ruby couldn't see herself imagining it any other way. _She's strong_ , she thought as they edged closer to the opened doorway. _I'd bet Yang and Nora would like her. Or Pyrrha; she reminds me of her… but Weiss is prettier._

"Make sure you stay on my right," Weiss murmured, releasing her hand and switching her gun to her dominant side on the left. "If we get surrounded, stay at my back. I'll protect you."

Reaching the door, it was hard not to see where the strong smell of blood was coming from. Lying sprawled just inside the door was a large, burly looking faunus in dark clothes. A heavy rifle was clutched in his furred hands, and from the look of surprise on his face, Ruby doubted that he had managed to get off a single shot.

Gazing down at the body, Weiss said, "His throat's been cut. Ear to ear. But… it looks like it was done slowly."

"Yea," Ruby agreed. "And there's a cut in the back of his neck, too."

They leaned down for a closer look. "A four or five inch blade," Weiss decided. "It went in just under his skull, severing the spinal column. Whoever did this is strong, there's no sign of sawing or anything - the blade went straight in."

Ruby nodded, both impressed with the other girl and a little queasy from her cold, clinical ability to tell what had happened. "But then why cut his throat?" she wondered, looking at Weiss for an explanation. "He would have been dead before he hit the ground, and cutting his throat would make it much easier to find the body… so why?"

Glancing through the door and into the room, Weiss shook her head. "To send a message?" she muttered. "But why bother? This doesn't make sense."

"Weiss."

"Mmm?"

"There's another body…"

Weiss looked to where Ruby was pointing her gun, noticing the other body further into the car. Even in the dim light, she could tell that the corpse also had his throat sliced, and like the first, his expression was set in shock - totally caught off guard at the time of death.

 _There's not even an attempt to hide the bodies,_ Ruby observed. _I guess they don't even care if anyone finds them_ …

"Ruby," Weiss whispered, cocking her pistol with her thumb as they stepped into the car, "Stay close to me. I don't like thi-"

"Well, hello there!"

At that moment, the car's light flickered on, and battle-honed reflexes helped both the Huntress and the soldier spin around and fall back at the sound of the voice from in front of them, narrowly avoiding the two well-placed bullets that otherwise would have gone straight through their heads.

Clumsily rolling to the left as Weiss rolled to the right, Ruby brought her handgun up to bear, ignoring the pain that lanced through her leg even as she stumbled into her crouch. The man she found herself aiming at walked out from the shadows of the forward car, a cane twirling in between his fingers. In the darkness he came from, it was difficult to tell any distinct features, but as he came into the light, the sharp orange color of his hair was obvious, even underneath his hat. His suit - white and clean - was far too outlandish looking for the bloody, grim atmosphere of the train, and Ruby almost lowered her gun instinctively - that was, until she noticed his left eye flash from a bright green to a steely silver.

The change was so quick that Ruby might have second guessed herself… if she hadn't pulled the trigger at that very moment.

"Whoop," the man exclaimed, leaning backward at almost the same moment Ruby's bullet left the barrel, missing the projectile completely as it passed millimeters from his face. "Nice shot!" He cheered, clapping his hands like a sports fan at his favorite team's big game. "Try again, Red!"

From the corner of her eye, Ruby saw Weiss rising to her feet, her own gun trained on the man as she called out, "Identify yourself."

The man shrugged, seemingly unconcerned about that two guns pointed at his face, and stepped forward, bowing elaborately. "Asking me to identify myself when you're stowaways on my train takes a lot of nerve - I like that!" he said as he straightened. "I must admit I completely forget my real name, if you can believe that. These days I go by Roman Torchwick," He winked and leaned forward, dropping his voice as if to share some great secret, "but my friends call me Mr. Roman."

As Ruby and Weiss stared, the man burst into spontaneous cackling, holding his sides as he doubled over, falling to the floor and rolling around from side to side.

"Oh… I like you girls," he finally sighed, climbing to his feet and dusted off his suit with one hand. "You," he pointed to Weiss, "can be 'Dropout Huntress That Tries To Be a Real Soldier', and you…" he trailed off as he turned towards Ruby. For a moment, he simply stared at her, and Ruby got the distinct, unpleasant feeling that he was trying to sniff her, even though she was a good ten feet away. "You can be 'Little Orphan Girl Trying To Be Just Like Dead Mommy."

A jolt of irrational fear ran through Ruby's body. "W-who are you?" she stammered, her gun hand shaking slightly as the man who called himself Roman twisted his head to the right, causing his neck to let out a series of sharp pops.

"Me?" Roman grinned. "I'm the big, bad wolf," he declared, holding his hand up to reveal a long, serrated knife. "See my claws? Rawr. And you are the little piggies. I'm gonna huff and puff and blow your houses down! This'll be a fun game!"

"Game?" Weiss echoed. "What game?"

Bouncing on his heels, Roman said, "Hide n' seek, of course! See, I give you five minutes to run and hide, and then…" His wide smile suddenly melted away, replaced by a cold, inhuman leer. "... well, then I peel the skin from your bones." And as suddenly as it had disappeared, his grin was back, twice as wide as before. "So you see, you better get going, or -"

Ruby flinched as Weiss opened fire, sending a series of bullets towards Roman… however, just before they hit, the man's hand seemed to blur in front of him, and with five small 'tinks'', Weiss' bullets fell to the ground, stopped almost effortlessly by the man's gleaming knife.

As if nothing had happened, Roman twirled his cane, cheerfully saying, "Five minutes, little piggies. Tick tock tick tock! Run along to your brick houses!"

There was a total of eight seconds of silence, and then Weiss grabbed Ruby's hand, pulling her up and bolting from the train, rushing down the ramp and disappearing into the dark forest that seemed to surround them where the train had stopped.

 _He did it,_ Ruby thought, shivering as behind then, Roman began to count in a loud, childishly falsetto voice. _He killed all those faunus... he stopped the train in the middle of nowhere…_

She swallowed as Weiss pulled her deeper into the forest.

 _And he's going to kill us…_

0 - 0 - 0

 **To be continued.**

A/N: Thanks for reaading. See you all next week.

 _***Will work for glomps***_


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry for the delay - I blame the holidays.

Anyway. Happy Holidays!

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

 _Episode 3: Rumble in the Jungle_

0 - 0 - 0

 **Weiss**

The forest was dark and hard to move through, but Weiss didn't dare to slow from her dead run for fear of feeling of a knife plunge into her back.

"Turn right!" Ruby hissed out, her Huntress training spotting breaks in the trees and easier pathways, though where it led them, they did not care. As long as they got to safety, nothing else mattered. "How long do we have? Has it been five minutes yet?"

"I'm not sure," Weiss replied. "But in hide and seek, the objective is to avoid being found… so I would assume he has set some sort of time limit for his 'game'."

Ruby's voice was fearful as she whispered, "I don't think he follows he own rules."

As if response to her idea, an all-too-close voice called out, "Ready or not, here I come!"

"Told you."

Weiss frowned as she ran. _We need a place to hide,_ she thought. _We can't take him in a standup fight, so it'll have to be an ambush - and I need time to plan._

"Look, a warehouse," Ruby pointed out. "Weiss, we can hide there!"

Squinting in the darkness, and wishing she had continued her Huntress training to improve the more esoteric still like seeing in limited light, Weiss managed to pick out a low, squat shape behind a thick cropping of trees. "Let's go." she whispered, changing course in mid-step and heading for the building. "Watch it though; if that was his train and he stopped it here, he likely knows the terrain better than we do. He'll know where this place is."

"Got it."

Weiss flicked her eyes back at the girl, deciding that she was holding up quite well for someone with a bullet in her leg. _Then again,_ she thought, _she is a Huntress. She would likely be able to keep going for a while. Much longer than I would, at any rate…_

She didn't doubt for a moment, however, that she would be able to match Roman. The man had managed to dodge their shots like they were nothing, and from his attitude, he clearly seemed stronger than either of them.

Or he was simply insane.

In her mind the debate was concluded by three simple facts: He was dangerous. Ruby was wounded. And Weiss had to do what she could to protect her.

"There's the door," Ruby said, nodding into the darkness to avoid letting go of Weiss' hand. "It looks pretty flimsy."

"Stand back," Weiss said, rearing back to give the door a solid kick. "I'll-"

Before she could finish, Ruby hobbled up to the door and swung her fist, snapping the doorknob off and causing the door to swing inward on its hinges.

"You were saying, Weiss?" she asked, smiling sweetly up at her, her fingers flexing nonchalantly.

"... Um, nevermind."

Together, they hurried into the building, but instead of a dusty old warehouse - as they had expected - they found themselves in a well-lit, fully functional concrete bunker, complete with sterile white walls and large stacks of neatly organised crates bearing trademarks and shipping stamps from all over Remnant, including -

"Well, at least we know where all the dust from the SDC heist ended up…" Weiss muttered, shaking her head at the piles of familiar-looking cartons piled in the far corner of the warehouse.

"Weiss…" Ruby whispered, tightening her hold on her hand as a gust of thin, dank air finally hit their noses.

"I know," Weiss replied, her voice grim. "I smell it too…"

The stench of death and decay was heavy in the air - thick, unmistakable, and stomach-clenchingly putrid. Weiss guessed that whoever had been working in this facility - probably the White Fang, as they had also been working the freight train - had been dead anywhere from a week or two, and not too far away. _Just long enough for a round trip to and from Vale,_ she realized, struggling to keep her meager dinner from the previous night down.

Ruby tugged on her arm. "Come on," She urged. "We have to hide - he's almost here."

Weiss nodded, hearing Roman crashing through the forest and making no attempt to keep quiet as he happily called out the possible ways he was going to end their lives. They paused as the latest of them reached their ears, and Ruby made a face.

"Eww, really? I mean, you'd think he'd keep us alive for that, at least." she gagged a bit.

"Get behind the crates," Weiss ordered. "When he gets into the center of the room, we'll catch him in a crossfire. He won't be able to dodge fire from two directions."

 _I hope_ , she added silently as they separated and took up their positions.

Once she was situated behind a stack of boxes, she looked over and nodded in approval as she saw Ruby ducking into a darkened alcove. Within seconds, she was almost invisible and had her sidearm trained on the doorway, ready for combat.

 _Excellent,_ Weiss mused. _Even if he spots me, she'll still be able to take him by surprise._

She turned her attention to the door just as Roman burst into the room, throwing his arms out and calling, "Come out, come out little piggies! By the hairs of your chinny chin chins!" He strode into the center of the room, grandly twirling his cane in large, arcing circles, his acid green eyes never once looking around to find either Weiss or Ruby. "You like what I've done with the place?" He asked conversationally. "I'd offer you some chocolate cookies or something - I know you like them, after all - but I'm afraid my cook is kinda dead right now. Oh, but don't worry; she'll get better! So-"

Weiss nodded towards Ruby, and they opened fire.

It was the perfect pincer situation, with perfect execution. Roman's body lurched and twitched as each round - ten in total - found their mark; four from Weiss and six from Ruby. Blood began to immediately seep from the wounds.

Only, even as blood welled from the holes in his pristine suit, Roman just laughed.

"Wow, you got me!" He giggled a high pitched, childish laugh. "Nicely done, ladies!"

Before either she or Ruby could react, Roman blurred forward straight into Ruby's hiding place, hauling her out by her hair and holding her up like a hunting dog - or a wolf, Weiss thought - with its quarry. The Huntress struggled in his grip, trying to train her sidearm towards his face, but only to have him slap her hand away.

"Ruby!"

Weiss dropped her gun and lunged forward, aiming a kick towards Roman's knees to attempt to make him lose his balance. But rather than giving way, Roman's leg remained stone-steady, and Weiss stumbled back, hissing as pain lanced through her foot and ankle. It hurt more than her days at Atlas Academy, where she had spend hours kicking metal training dummys.

"Oh dear," Roman gasped, ignoring Weiss entirely as his eyes traveling up and down Ruby's body. "Your hurt, Red. Well, let it never be said that I let a little girl suffer in pain."

So he said. But the fact that he slammed Ruby up against the nearest stack of boxes and held up a pair of fingers, showing them to Ruby before whispering, "Now, this may sting just a little bit."

Ruby screamed as the man then ripped away Weiss' makeshift bandage and then jabbed his digits into the bloody hole in her leg, rooting around in her wound like he was fishing out a coin from his pocket.

Weiss shook out her foot, and then dove for Ruby's gun before Roman kicked it away.

"Well, I'll be. That _is_ in there pretty deep," he muttered, lifting his leg and whipping it around, delivering a kick to Weiss' side and knocking her to the ground. He lifted it a second time to pin her arm to the floor. "You mean to tell me you've been walking around with this for three days? You are a trooper, Red. It's right between the bone and… well, _something_. I dunno. Another bone? I never really paid attention in human biology, ya'know?" He laughed as Ruby began to sob with pain, completely ignoring Weiss scrambling underneath him, trying to get free.

"You know what?" Roman chuckled, "I can actually get my fingernail under it. You feel that?" Ruby's scream was enough of an answer. "But I _caaan't_ quite get it out. Oh well, maybe another time."

He removed his fingers and Ruby crumpled to the floor, sobbing and clutching at her leg as Weiss pulled her trembling form into her arms.

"Well, that was dull," Roman said, picking up his cane and resting it behind his neck, looking dispassionately down at the two girls. "I _was_ gonna save little Red here for Quicksilver; you know, with the silver eyes she already has and all. But with that leg, I legitimately don't know what all that dust would do to her. Maybe just kill her outright. And, well, I can do that myself, so how's that interesting?"

Sighing, he crouched down and looked at Weiss as he picked at one of his oozing shoulder wounds through his suit jacket. "You, though… you're nice and healthy. And with your Huntress training…" He mused. "Yea, I think you'll do just fine."

Reaching down, he grabbed Weiss and Ruby by the sides of their heads and cracked them neatly together. Weiss didn't even cry out in pain, barely having the ability to gasp in surprise before the lights went out and she plunged into darkness.

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

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 **Ruby**

The next few days passed in the exact opposite way of the ones spent on the train.

Instead of sneaking around a dark train, hiding in alcoves and closets, Ruby found herself bound to a small, steel chair, with nothing to look at but a corrugated metal wall. The first day - or what she assumed was the first day, since she had nothing to tell time but their own intuition - she had talked to Weiss, who was bound to a chair directly behind her. But Roman, who spent his time in the next room working on a 'mysterious project… seriously, hush hush little Red or I'll have to cut your tongue out', came in a gagged them, cheerfully telling them to be quiet or he'll have to cut their tongues out anyway.

It was a strange, timeless captivity. And one that Ruby would be happy to never suffer through again. Roman fed them when he deemed convenient - or he remembered to. Sometimes an entire day passed and all he would bring them would be a stale piece of bread, which Ruby would scarf regardless. And sometimes only half an hour would have passed and Roman would bring in a full course meal with pasta, potatoes, and what she hoped was steak.

Sometimes Roman would pace around their room, ranting and raving in a shrill voice about persecution, his misunderstood genius, and something about a woman named 'Cinder'. The only comfort Ruby had was at during these times, she would feel Weiss' fingers on the back of her hand, gently caressing her. Twisting her own wrists around must have hurt the other girl, but Ruby appreciated the gesture all the same - that she was there with her, and Ruby was not alone with this madman.

It was the only thing, really, that kept Ruby from totally losing her mind. Trapped, scared out of her mind, and miserably concerned for her sister, Ruby readily accepted Weiss as a source of comfort.

Someday, she promised herself, she could find a way to pay her back for being here with her.

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

0 - 0 - 0

 **Ruby**

"And it's done! We're finally ready!"

Ruby's' head jerked up from where it had been sagging to her chest. At a guess, it was close to midnight, though that could have just been from the way she felt, and she had to blink several times to clear the drowsiness from her eyes as she look up to see Roman standing in front of her, his hands proudly on his hips.

"Ready?" she murmured… or tried to anyway. She was still gagged.

"Yup!" Roman proclaimed, reaching down to roughly yank the gag from Ruby's mouth, and then walking around to do the same to Weiss. "Come along, ladies," he said happily. "It's time!"

Two minutes later, Weiss and Ruby were standing in a large, uncomfortably cold room, trying to rub the numbness from their arms as they stared at an old painting, depicting what looked like a pair of benevolent shadows over a larger group of groveling beings.

Gesturing to the painting, Roman cleared his throat. "The Birth of Humanity, author unknown, but believed to be a few hundred years old. Look!" He pointed to the pair of large shadows towering over the people below them; one noticeably brighter than the other. "Here we have the two gods - brothers, they were - that created man and gave them life! And the people under them, subservient, as lesser being should be." He gazed fondly at the work of art. "This painting saved my life, you know." He blinked, peering over towards the girls. "Wanna know how?"

Weiss and Ruby exchanged wary glances, but nodded quickly when Roman's smile began to lessen.

"Well! I'll tell you, since you're interested! See, they were coming to, how did they put it…" he made quote signs in the air with his fingers. "'Capture and Contain' me, and I just wasn't having it. So then they tried to just kill me. The guy who was going to attempt to put me out of my 'misery' was about to shoot me in the head, when suddenly I remembered seeing this painting years ago in an art book and was struck with inspiration. So, I let him shoot me, 'accidentally' fell down a cliff into the water, faking my death and swimming as far as I could away from here." He laughed, shaking his head. "Did you think they even _tried_ to look for me? Silly billies."

He twisted his neck to the side. It popped repeatedly, and he concluded, "Anyhoo, I knew then that I just _had_ to have this painting. I love it. And Quicksilver just felt _wrong_ without some kind of guiding principle - so I bid my time, set up a bomb in the Museum of Vale, left it there for a few months, then tipped off the authorities so that they knew when and where I would hit."

" _You_ tipped us off?" Weiss asked incredulously.

"Well duh!" Roman rolled his eyes. "What fun would it be to just steal the painting and make off with it, scot free? Nah... I wanted something a little more entertaining."

"So," Ruby murmured. "We were right. You were the old man."

Roman twirled his cane and bowed deeply. "Guilty as charged," he declared proudly.

"And then I used my magic powers to make you two talk to each other so you would be distracted while I set off the bomb," He said, tapping his forehead with a finger with a wink. When the two girls exchanged uncertain glances, he cackled, "Nah, just pulling your legs! Can you imagine?" He said, delighted. "But seriously, it was very useful of you to distract them for me, Dropout Huntress Turned Soldier."

Still grinning, he gestured to another door leading to a larger, open chamber.

"Well, in you go."

When Weiss hesitated, Roman sighed and reached casually into his suit jacket, pulling out his serrated knife and holding it up to her neck. As he wiggled the blade against her throat, Weiss sent a reassuring smile to Ruby and mouthed, 'Don't worry,' and stepped into the chamber.

Tossing a pair of bindings to Ruby, he said, "Do me a favor and hook your hands to that door over there, would you, Little Red? And don't worry," he added, "This one won't break as easy as the other one." As Ruby secured herself quickly and efficiently, Roman turned back and gestured his knife towards Weiss. "Now, _this_ ," he said, indicating to the room she stood in. "Is the gas chamber. I was never too sure about how well _gas_ worked with dust, but it worked with me so… well, either way, you're in for a treat, Dropout Huntress."

Ruby tried discretely to move her arm, wincing in pain as she balanced on her good leg. But to no avail.

Turning back to look around the room Weiss stood in, it seemed to be the epitome of 'foreboding'. Empty, save for a chair and a few empty metal boxes, she could spy a handful of vents littering the edge of the room; presumably for this gas Roman mentioned. She had heard of such things - gas chambers and the like - used in war and executions, and it did little to reassure her of her current predicament. Roman had said it had worked on him before. But with how he was now, insane as Ruby had ever seen, she had no idea what to expect.

"Oh, boy! The suspense is terrible!" Roman laughed. "Now let's see here… the door closes, the canisters are set, the pumps are primed… the gas comes out… and _wham!_ " He slapped his hands together. "Miss Dropout Huntress goes from being hum-drum soldier and suck up to big sister to Silver-Eyed Bad-Ass in no time at all! It's like the best energy drink of all time!"

He winked at Ruby.

"Just like us, little Red. I made it myself, you know," he said. "Most of the facility had been destroyed - gutted, really. And I put a lot of work to get it up and running again. A lotta faunus died to set everything back up. Sure I killed them after they finished… but, hey, semantics. Fortunately," his eye flashed a pale silver for a moment, and then his natural green pigment leaked back into it like ink into a blank page. "I have a certain talent for building things from nothing."

There was a long moment of silence while he surveyed his work, clearly satisfied with the fruits of his labor. Ruby did not understand exactly what was going to happen - or what having silver eyes had anything to do with it, but she had a feeling it wasn't going to be good. And from what Roman was saying, Weiss was clearly going to come out of this… process… changed somehow.

And Ruby pretty much liked Weiss the way she was now.

Glancing nervously at Weiss, Ruby whispered, "What's going to happen to her?"

Though he looked mildly irritated at having to explain himself _again_ , Roman replied, "Well, she'll be covered in dust, which has been chemically separated and reformed into gas, and it'll seep into all her pores and orifices, and I mean _every single one_ , and when it's all said and done… your little soldier girl here will be a god."

He gave Ruby another broad wink.

"Pretty sweet, huh?"

When Ruby gave him a blank stare, he sighed. "Kids these days just don't understand genius." Shrugging, he slapped his hands together, rubbing them mischievously "Well, all systems go… Dropout Huntress is about to get gassed… why wait?" Slowly he tapped his finger to his cheek, his eyes flicking over the scene before he snapped his fingers, "Oh-! an audience! That's what's missing. What good is vengeance against those who made you if they aren't here to witness it, right Little Red?"

Ruby nodded excitedly, trying to buy as much time as she could. "Absolutely," She agreed. "Everyone should know about how you were treated, and how… um, how much of a genius you are, and how much of a monster you are and… and…"

She trailed off as she made the connection in her mind.

Looking up, she found Roman staring down at her with a slightly concerned expression. He looked almost human for a moment, before his chilling smile returned and he patted her none too gently on the head.

"Oh, Little Red… don't worry. I'll make sure you have a front row seat to the show."

0 - 0 - 0

 **To be continued.**

A/N: Thanks for reaading. See you all next week.

 _***Will work for glomps***_


	4. Chapter 4

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 **The Quicksilver Initiative**

Episode 4: Quicksilver

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 **Weiss**

Roman whistled as he worked, bustling from one control panel to another like a busy ant at a picnic. A flipped switch here, and twisted level there, he never seemed to slow down or stop.

"This is gonna be _amazing_ ," he giggled his high-pitched giggle. He flipped another switch on a console before dancing a jig in front of Ruby and Weiss. "You're gonna be just like us, Dropout Huntress! Just like _us!_ "

Weiss' stomach churned, and if she'd been a tougher girl, she'd have said something like, 'You'll have to kill me first, you bastard.' As it was though, she was too scared to do more than look at Ruby, managing what she hoped was a reassuring smile and willing to her that everything would be okay.

"Well," Roman said, rubbing his hands together briskly as he looked around the room, "I guess that's it then. I've put it off as long as I can stand. I was hoping for a few more spectators to witness this, but I guess they can't be bothered." He glanced at Weiss, a look of almost pity flashing over his face. "So much for your loving sister, huh, Dropout Huntress? I mean, really, if they were coming, they would have been here by now, right?"

As if in answer to his question, there was a rumble, followed by a wall-shuddering crash, shaking the building to its foundation as something enormous exposed just outside. The wall caved, sending debris everywhere. When the dust settled a bit, Weiss blinked and looked down at Roman's feet, where a bright white -and wholly recognizable glyph - was present.

 _Winter!_

And, sure enough, from the rubble, the commander of Atlesian Black Ops' stood, picking her way through the remains of the broken wall to the room. She stopped meters from Roman, her icy blue eyes taking a single moment to flick over Weiss and Ruby, and then back to the man.

"Roman." She said simply.

"Ahh, the boss lady herself," Roman hummed, jerking his feet out of the binding glyph like kicking off an insect from his trousers. "I'd say I'm surprised to see you, but we both know I'd be lying, right?" He glanced back at Weiss and Ruby. "I assume you're here for your sister and little Red, hmm? I suppose the idea is for the sisters to gang up on me, Semblances and all, and Red here to go all Silver Eyed-"

"Weiss, get down!" Weiss flung herself down to the ground as another wall exploded from the outside, this time consisting of several smaller cracks in the air as shots - heavy-load shells, if Weiss' ears heard right - made short work of the thin wall and rocketed towards Roman. Unfortunately, even deranged as he was, Roman was still able to dodge each shot with ease, leaping elegantly into the air and ricocheting off one of the walls like a rubber ball. Every shot went wide, hitting nothing but metal and concrete as Roman kept well away from the control panels, and eventually, the shots subsided and all was silent.

"Aww, done so soon?" Roman moaned, skipping once more to a control panel. "One of those actually almost came close to grazing me."

Weiss narrowed her eyes, looking from the calm face of her older sister to the newcomer, and felt her eyebrows lift as she saw a familiar head of yellow hair.

"Yang!" Ruby cried, her relief palpable from just the single word. "You're alright!"

The woman walked through the rubble, stepping directly onto the debris and crunching it underfoot - where Winter had daintily avoided any herself - and Weiss swallowed as she beheld furious crimson eyes glaring directly at Roman.

"Don't worry Ruby," Yang said, her voice clipped and succinct. "We got this." and from behind her, a group of other people Weiss' age appeared; four girls and two boys in total. _Ruby's teammates,_ Weiss realized as they began to fan out, readying various weapons ranging from a pair of knives, to a large hammer, to swords and shields. The fact that Ruby's backup had come as promised made her feel a little better about their situation.

As if to back up Yang's declaration that yes, they indeed 'got' this, Winter was joined by not only Lucca and Chet and the rest of her team, but also General Ironwood, his large caliber pistol trained over Winter's shoulder directly on Roman.

"Roman," a final voice called out, and Weiss looked back towards the Beacon Huntsmen to see a face she recognised right away. Her mouth dried up as she realized that, indeed, this was never a simple terrorist attack.

Not like she hadn't figured that out a few days ago, anyway.

"It's over." Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy said simply. He walked up to Yang's side and stood straight; tall and proud, as if giving a lecture in a classroom. "Why don't you give up now?"

Roman's smile vanished. "Well," he whispered, "I certainly didn't expect to see you here, Ozpin."

Winter's face lost its composure, slipping into a mask of barely contained fury. "Call it off, Roman!" She hissed, pointed a finger at the consoles. "Shut it down now!"

"I suppose I should throw out some line like, 'It's too late, no one can stop it now,' or something, but I really don't have the patience," Roman said blandly. "And as for turning it off, I really don't think I want to - not until Quicksilver is complete, that is." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Weiss. "The Dropout here will have Silver Eyes like the rest of us."

Winter's cheek twitched and she glanced at Weiss, and for the first time she could remember, Weiss noticed that one of her eyes was not it's usual pale blue, but a steely silver.

"That will not happen." she promised.

Ozpin stepped forward, and Weiss noticed that one of his own eyes, like Winter's, was also silver. "Quicksilver was shut down for a reason, Roman. You know this. I know this. We will stop you."

"And… you two are what? The first of many to stop me?" Roman rolled his eyes. "You should have brought more. Dozens, hundreds, even. But it still won't be enough."

Winter's mouth was set in a firm line. "We will stop you," she said quietly. "You would know this if you weren't... " Her lips twisted, but Roman snorted.

"If I weren't what… a defect? A mistake? That's why you tried to get rid of me, wasn't it? You didn't like how I turned out, so you tried to bury me, and Quicksilver, so no one would ever know. And now, what? You want to do it again?" He threw his hands out to the side and looked up to the ceiling. "Why? Why would you want to stop it! This is what we are striving for! This is what we are destined for! This is our potential; what the gods intended for us from the very start."

He shook his head, chuckling, and walked over to place a hand on Ruby's head, ruffling her hair. "You see, little Red? The problem is no one can see what we are capable of. No one _wants_ to see. You, my dear, are one of a kind; the epitome of what we want to achieve. And I simply want to reach it... to reach _you_. Don't you understand?"

Though it was obvious Ruby didn't, she nodded all the same, fearly of what would happen to her if she didn't.

Nodding along with her, Roman stood up. "So there we have it. I won't stop. I'll make more - so much more that there will be plenty! Everyone will have silver eyes just like us!"

"I told you that isn't going to happen." Winter growled, a sound matched by Yang, who clenched her fists inside her gauntlets. "This is your last chance, Roman. Cease Quicksilver or there will be consequences."

There was an affirming murmur among those gathered; both Black Ops and Huntsmen, but Roman didn't seem bothered by any of it.

"Consequences? From who? This bunch?" He giggled airily. "Not likely."

"Hold your fire," Winter ordered, pursing her lips as Roman leaned on a control panel, his fingers idling over a switch - clearly the one to begin the process. "One misplaced shot and you kill Lieutenant Schnee."

Headmaster Ozpin then detached himself from his group and walked slowly over to Winter's group. "General Ironwood. Commander Schnee." he said politely, "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Though Ironwood was her superior, Winter was the one to respond. Though, as she spoke, a her face twitched as a trickle of blood bubbled from her right nostril. "Hello, Headmaster," She murmured, never taking her eyes off of Roman. "I suppose you never thought we would be meeting against like this, did you?"

The man sighed, his cane clicking on the ground as he stood beside Winter. "I often wondered if something like this would happen," he titled his head slightly as he regarded Roman, and then sighed again, "Which is why I did what I could to prepare accordingly when you called. Say the word, and we'll take him down."

Weiss nearly wept as both the Black Ops and Beacon Huntsman tensed for a fight. Roman was frighteningly strong, but he couldn't possibly match this many skilled opponents. Surely not Ironwood, Winter, Ozpin, her squadmates, and Ruby's teammates.

"We'll see. If it comes to that, You'll know it. But for now, I'd rather not risk so many of both our organizations' manpower."

Dipping his head slightly, Ozpin muttered. "Well, I do owe you… so we'll do it your way."

Winter's lips curled up slightly. "One of these days we'll have to go over exactly who owes who what." Then her expression turned thunderous, "I'll only need a minute."

She took a deep breath and leveled a harsh glare at the criminal before them, "Roman Torchwick," She called as Ozpin stepped back into his group of Huntsmen, "You are out of control and your mind has been poisoned. We cannot let you go unchecked any longer."

"You mean we can't be friends?" Roman asked, pouting.

"No."

"Too bad," He said, his smile melting away as quickly as it had come, "Then burn."

Winter and Ozpin winced as both of Roman's eyes flashed a bright silver, each taking half a step back as Roman sneered disdainfully at them. Ruby hissed in pain as well, her head twisting to the side as if trying to block her ears from a high-pitch sound. Weiss watched as the silent, shocking, but seemingly intense battle was waged between the three - four, if Ruby was involved at all - and since none of them actually moved, just stared at each other in malevolence, Weiss had no idea who was coming out on top.

 _Think,_ she told herself, glancing around for some kind of clue. _Think! He can be shot, but it doesn't hurt him… he… has super strength, and magic… or something, along with Ozpin, Winter, and apparently Ruby. He has to have a weakness. He has to!_

Finally, her gaze fell to Yang, standing beside her headmaster. Her eyes seemed to bore into the other girl's, and there was a stern determination there that Weiss rarely ever saw. Her eyes - a bright crimson - flicked from her, to Ruby, to the silent battle going on around them, and then, finally, to a dark bundle in her hands. She lifted it up and gestured it to Weiss, then then towards Ruby. Then the tossed the thing straight at her.

Her instructions were clear.

Understanding immediately, Weiss reached up and plucked the bundle from the air - a mechanical folding rifle, she recognized - and felt around for its catch. She found it, and it extended into a black and red, high-powered, sniper rifle. Not wasting a moment - since Ruby was still bound and she couldn't waste the time to free her - Weiss dropped to one knee and hefted the gun, sighting in on Roman's head and pulling the trigger before he could do anything but blink at her.

The bullet shot true, and sailed directly into his right eye, passing through his brain and exiting out the back of his head. His hat flew up in the air and fluttered to the ground.

"Wow! That was incredible!" he shouted, ignoring the blood spurting out his ruined eye and head. "Absolutely marvelous! Terrific aim! Amazing! If I was a betting man, I'd give you another go. But, seeing as I'm a bit preoccupied," paused slightly to take a breath, and then kicked a chunk of debris towards Weiss, where it whistled through the air with incredible accuracy and smashed into the barrel of the rifle, "I simply can't give you another try. Sorry about that. Now, as I was saying, I -"

He suddenly cut himself off, twitching and clutching at his bleeding head. Winter and Ozpin, along with Ruby from her place bound to the door, grimaced with effort, blood trickling freely down their noses.

"Get… out… of… my… _head!_ " Roman snarled, his last word seeming to physically forcing his attackers to their knees.

They rocked back, their eyes rolling back into their heads as they collapsed to the ground in matching heads, their faces matching each other's in shock and fury as they stilled.

Panting, Roman grinned, wiping a trickle of spit and blood from his mouth as he muttered, "It that it? Is that the best you can do? All that for nothing! With you three gone, the rest of you are-"

Weiss' angry shriek was enough to jerk him around, his eyes widening with shock as the girl threw herself at him, the rifle in her hands extended into a full battle scythe, the blade whistling through the air towards his neck.

His arm a blur, Roman whipped up his cane to intercept the attack, catching Weiss along the shoulder as she approached. She felt her collarbone break and pain seared through her arm, but the scythe had already found its' mark. It sunk into muscle and sinew, making a squelching sound until it halted on hardened bone. Even in his neck, it seemed, Roman was more than a man.

Luckily, she was not alone. In the span of those precious seconds Weiss had his attention, her's and Ruby's teammates leapt into action, the coordination of trained soldiers and Huntsmen coming into play as they converged on their target.

Roman made to turn, intent on meeting his attackers head on, but Weiss pressed forward, thrusting the first two fingers of her hand into Roman's remaining good eye. The man snarled in agony - the first of which she had heard from him since their meeting - and shoved Weiss away with all the strength he could muster.

Unable to keep a firm grip on the scythe, Weiss was flung away and slammed into the far wall, crumpling like a ragdoll on the floor, the sounds of battle echoing through her ears as darkness took her.

0 - 0 - 0

The Quicksilver Initiative

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Weiss was amazed by the sheer number of people - both Huntsmen and soldiers - that swarmed the area once it was clear that Roman had been neutralized. Almost from the very moment she was woken up by a worried-looking Lucca, and Chet hovering by her shoulder, Winter, Ozpin and Ruby had been hustled off by medics and, leaving her alone to bear the storm of General Ironwood, a group of very upset Huntsmen.

Winter, as Weiss had found out from Lucca and Chet, had divulged the location of the warehouse from the files pertaining to the 'Quicksilver Initiative', a long-buried plan of the greatest secrecy. When asked about it, both her squadmates simply shrugged and said that Winter had only told them the basics; a 'need to know basis'.

She should have known it wouldn't be that easy. She would have to grill her sister later for information. As soon as she recovered, that is...

Luckily, General Ironwood had a much better understanding of the Initiative. Not on the same level as Winter or Ozpin, apparently, but enough to fill in some of the gaps left by Roman and his raving.

"So you see," Ironwood explained to her, "Quicksilver was a joint project between Atlas and Beacon, and both tried their best to bury it, for obvious reasons." He gestured vaguely to the ruins of the warehouse their battle with Roman had taken place. His implication was obvious. "Beacon had the knowledge, or Ozpin did, at any rate, and the Atlas Military had the means."

"The Schnee Dust Company had the means, you mean." Weiss muttered, then snapped her mouth shut as she remembered who she was talking to. Just because her sister talked to the General of the Atlesian military that way did _not_ mean that she could.

"So, _Specialist_ ," the older man continued, eyeing Weiss carefully. "The project was started between our two organizations, but naturally, there were disagreements over who to use for it, which resulted with some bad blood." His mouth twisted slightly. "But, ultimately, the files were left with us and the Initiative was buried. As you can guess, Roman was the first to undergo the process, and well as the first we trained from the ground up. Unfortunately, we didn't foresee how his psyche would take the enhancement, and his breakdown and subsequent psychosis convinced us that the project was too dangerous to continue."

He sighed heavily. "No matter how beneficial it would be to have man-made silver-eyed warriors aiding us in the fight against the Grimm."

Pondering this information, and rolling around the idea of 'silver-eyed warriors' in her mind, Weiss slowly asked, "Sir… you mentioned that there were others? Roman talked about someone called… Cinder?"

"Ah," Ironwood murmured. "I was hoping you had not learned of her, Specialist." Seeing that Weiss was patiently waiting for an explanation, he continued, "We subjected her to Quicksilver shortly after Roman; before his insanity became apparent. We tried relocating her after Roman's breakdown and escape, but she disappeared." He cleared his throat. "We had hoped that both she and Roman would lay low for a while, or never resurface again, but…"

He fell silent, and Weiss understood. If Roman could do this - try to restart Quicksilver - then so could Cinder. It was just a matter of time.

"Sir…?"

"Hmm?"

Weiss bit her lip, hesitating only a moment before letting her thoughts known, "Is my sister… will she…?"

Ironwood reached out and placed a large hand on Weiss' shoulder. The gesture both surprised and warmed her, as the stoic man was not known for his kindness. Considering the circumstances, however, she was glad for the small token of affection.

"Will she end up like Roman, you mean?" When Weiss nodded, Ironwood shook his head. "She was subjected to Quicksilver only a few weeks after Roman and Cinder, along with Ozpin. Luckily, the two of them have not shown any signs of the problems."

His words were kind, but Weiss could read between the lines; _they have not shown any problems… so far_. Only the future could tell if there would be any lasting effects.

"What happens now?" she wondered aloud.

"Now? I suppose we should leave things as they are."

Weiss blinked, "But, Sir, what about the facility? Shouldn't we… shouldn't we destroy it?"

Hesitating, Ironwood shrugged, "It's not my place to say. Ozpin and Winter were the creators of Quicksilver; I was just an advisor. I haven't received any kind of direct order on what to do about the technology." Seeing that Weiss was on the verge of speaking out, Ironwood lowered his voice. "However, I think it may have been damaged a bit in the fight to subdue Roman. So I doubt any of it can be used again. In fact," he stood up straight, checking his gun and holstering it. "I do believe even if there wasn't any major damage, key components - say, the pressurized dust - would have been rendered useless and the remains collected by the Schnee Dust Company for recycling. It was theirs initially, correct?"

Though she wished for a more conclusive end to this debacle, Weiss was mollified, knowing that there was little else they could do at this point.

As they left the building in silence, Weiss stopped, the familiar gaze of Ruby's silvery eyes watching her from the middle of her circle of teammates. She felt Ironwood touch her shoulder and mutter something about checking on the rest of her team, and leave her side.

"You're alright." Weiss said, her heart fluttering in relief as she watched Ruby smile shyly back at her. Yang nudged her in the back, and Ruby stepped forward on a freshly bandaged, but still tender leg.

"Yea. They took the bullet out of my leg while I was out, and treated it as best they could for now. I woke up before Professor Ozpin and… Winter? They took more of Roman's attack than I did. Is she your sister?"

"Yes."

Ruby nodded, worry pinching her face. "I hope she'll be okay."

"You are, so I think she'll be fine." Weiss said. "Don't worry about her. Both her and your Headmaster."

Nodding again, Ruby turned her head around to look at her teammates, but each one of them were looking away from them. A blonde boy was whistling while looking at the trees, and a red-headed girl was turned in the complete opposite direction.

"Are… they your friends?" Weiss asked, perhaps unnecessarily.

"Yea, they are. I'd introduce you, but, um, I think we have to leave in a minute."

Weiss smiled, already spying Lucca and Chet catching her eye from their transport. It was about time to leave. "Next time then."

Ruby grinned widely. "Totally. You'll have to visit Beacon sometime."

"And eat junk food with you?"

"And cookies." Ruby agreed solemnly. "We can't forget the cookies."

"Cookies, too." Weiss reached out her hand towards Ruby. "I'm looking forward to it."

Ruby looked down at Weiss' hand, her brow furrowing for a moment, before looking back up at her. She turned around to look behind her, but her friends were still resolutely not looking at them. She turned back and motioned Weiss to lean closer.

Doing as she was asked, Weiss' eyes widened as the girl put her hands on her shoulders and pressed her lips to her cheek.

"Thanks for saving me. And for being there for me." She whispered, smiling a bit as Weiss blinked in shock. "I'll see you later, Weiss."

"Um, yea... Goodbye... Ruby."

Stepping back slightly, Ruby grinned conspiratorially, "By the way, Yang is my sister. Not my girlfriend."

And just like that, she moved back to her friends and was swallowed up by the small crowd.

Weiss stared as the group walked away, her mouth hanging open until Ironwood cleared his throat beside her. "I saw the wound in her leg when she was out," he said quietly. "The damage was extensive, but it'll heal. But with the fight with Roman at the end… who knows how it'll affect her."

Weiss straightened out her clothing, thankful her superior had not mentioned anything about the kiss. "I know…" She hesitated, wondering how to word her thoughts on the girl she had spend almost a week with - half in shared captivity. "She's… a remarkable girl. Huntress."

"Indeed," Ironwood said, nodding his approval at Weiss' tact. "I suppose we should be off. Let's go, Specialist."

"Yes, Sir."

They started towards their transports, but as the crowd began to disperse, Weiss found herself still searching for any sign of Ruby in the crowd. Small, a bit shy at times, but unafraid to speak up when you got closer to her, and a love for cookies, she was still braver than any soldier Weiss had ever served with, and she wished there had been more time to get to know her, maybe without the the constant threat of death hanging over their heads.

She touched her cheek, coloring slightly as she recalled the feeling of Ruby's lips against her skin. And then, there was the comment she had made - that Yang was her sister, not her girlfriend.

 _I wonder_ , she thought as she climbed into the transport beside Lucca, _will I ever see her again?_

For a moment, she thought she saw the familiar dark head of hair and pale skin, and a flash of silver eyes, and she tried in vain to get a better look, but the door of the transport closed, and the craft lifted into the sky, leaving her with nothing but unanswered questions and an odd feeling her her chest as she realized that she honestly wanted to see Ruby again.

She was the last member of the Atlas Spec Ops to leave the ruins of the Quicksilver Initiative project.

0 - 0 - 0

 **The End**

A/N: Or is it?

Not but seriously, this is the end of Arc 1. There are at least 2 more arcs in the Quicksilver story (spoilers, they have to do with Adam and Cinder, respectively). I wrote arc 1 thinking I would leave it at that for a while and see if people are interested enough in it to warrant continuing the story. As it is, its wrapped up enough - leaving some obvious unanswered questions hanging in case of a continuation - to stand on its own.

In the meantime, I have a couple other projects in the works, and more than a few one-shots down the pipeline.

Thanks for reading - Cheers!

 _***Will work for glomps***_


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